Axel Olrik

Axel Olrik (3 July 1864 – 17 February 1917) was a Danish folklorist and scholar of mediaeval historiography, and a pioneer in the methodical study of oral narrative.

Olrik was born in Frederiksberg, the son of the artist Henrik Olrik. Artist Dagmar Olrik, judge Eyvind Olrik, historian Hans Olrik and cultural historian Jørgen Olrik were his siblings.

Career Olrik began his studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1881. In 1886, he won the university gold medal for an essay on the age of the Eddic poems; he received his Master of Arts in Nordic Philology in 1887 and his Ph.D. in 1892. The following year, he became a private docent at the university. On 1 April 1896 he was awarded a temporary position in Scandinavian folklore, which on 9 April 1913 was converted into an extraordinary professorship. Apart from a period at Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1892 studying with Moltke Moe, he spent his entire career at the University of Copenhagen.

Scholarly work

Folklore While a student, Olrik soon came under the influence of Svend Grundtvig, and until the latter's death in 1883, was treated almost like a son. His first major scholarly work was therefore a continuation of Grundtvig's work on the Danish ballads; with Danske Ridderviser (1898–1919) he continued the publication of Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, which was in turn continued after his own death by his pupil Hakon Grüner-Nielsen. Olrik was able to draw more than Grundtvig on collected oral material; in 1888–89 he himself did some fieldwork collecting folksongs. and served as its first president. He was also the first president of Danmarks Folkeminder, an association founded in 1908, and set up its committees for the study of folklore material and of placenames, both of which are now research institutes at the University of Copenhagen. In addition, with Kaarle Krohn and C. W. von Sydow, he co-founded the international organisation of Folklore Fellows in 1907, and the first issue of Folklore Fellows' Communications, of which he was co-editor from its inception in 1910, Upon his death, his professorship and with it folklore studies at the University of Copenhagen came to an end; the field was only revived in 1961.

Mediaeval historiography and culture Olrik's Ph.D. dissertation, Forsøg på en tvedeling af kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie ("Attempts at a two-part division of the sources for Saxo's history of the Danes"), was on the sources of Saxo Grammaticus' Latin history of the Danes, Gesta Danorum. Based on the presence or absence of West Norse names and familiarity with West Norse geography and with material in pre-existing Icelandic historical works, he believed it was possible to distinguish passages in which Saxo had drawn on Norwegian and Icelandic sources and those where he had used native Danish traditions. He died in Øverød on 17 February 1917 from pneumonia following a successful operation on his ear.

Honours In 1911 Olrik was named the first external member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences.

Selected publications Kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie: en literaturhistorisk undersøgelse Volume 1 Forsøg pa en tvedeling af kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie. Copenhagen: Wroblewski, 1892 . Volume 2 Sakses oldhistorie, norrøne sagaer og Danske sagn. Copenhagen: Wroblewski, 1894 (based on his dissertation) (with Ida Falbe-Hansen). Danske Folkeviser i Udvalg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1899, 1909 A Book of Danish Ballads. Tr. E. M. Smith-Dampier. 1939. Repr. Granger index reprint series. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries, 1968. (translation of above) Om Ragnarok. Volume 1 Copenhagen: Gad, 1902, first printed in Årbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1902, pp. 157–291. . Volume 2 Ragnarokforestillingernes udspring, first printed in Danske Studier 1913. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gad, 1914. Danmarks heltedigtning: en oldtidsstudie Volume 1 Rolf Krake og den ældre Skjoldungrackke Copenhagen: Gad, 1903 . Volume 2 Starkad den Gamle og den yngre Skjoldungrække. Copenhagen: Gad, 1910 (Remaining 5 volumes not completed; notes held at the Danish folklore archive) "Episke love i folkedigtningen". Danske Studier, 5 (1908): 69-89 (https://web.archive.org/web/20160309204457/http://danskestudier.dk/materiale/1908.pdf). Olrik expressed the same ideas in German in 'Epische Gesetze der Volksdichtung', Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und Deutsche Literatur, 51 (1909), 1–12, which was translated into English as 'Epic Laws of Folk Narrative', in The Study of Folklore, ed. by Alan Dundes (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965), pp. 129–41 Nordisk Åndsliv i Vikingetid og tidlig Middelalder. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1907. (completed by Hans Lavrids Ellekilde). Nogle grundsætninger for sagnforskning. Danmarks folkeminder 23. Copenhagen: Schønberg, 1921. Principles for Oral Narrative Research. Tr. Kirsten Wolf and Jody Jensen. Folklore studies in translation. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1992. (translation of above) (revised and completed by Hans Ellekilde). Nordens Gudeverden. Volume 1 Vætter og helligdomme Copenhagen: Gad, 1926. Volume 2 Årets ring Copenhagen: Gad, 1951.